


contingency

by librain



Series: flourish and blotts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Dark Draco Malfoy, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/M, Hogwarts, Morally Ambiguous Character, One Shot, One Shot Collection, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28184028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librain/pseuds/librain
Summary: War brings out the worst in everyone.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Series: flourish and blotts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064639
Kudos: 20





	contingency

The Battle of Hogwarts had reached its peak. The Order of the Phoenix was stretched thin over the castle grounds, battling two to one with Death Eaters. Students, still in their pajamas or hastily thrown on school robes, were running through the crowds, firing off any rudimentary spells they remembered from their Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. 

Hermione Granger stood in the middle of it all. Having returned to Hogwarts for the first time in nearly a year, she looked around the courtyard at the mess of rubble, bright lights from spells, and bodies that at a glance showed no indication of whether they were stunned or dead. Her grief was suppressed by adrenaline shooting through her veins. 

“Stupefy!” she stunned an approaching Death Eater on her right, while silently erecting a shield charm around her. 

“Now is not the time for fifth-year spells, Granger!”

She looked to her left to see Draco Malfoy. His robes forgotten, he was in muggle trousers and a shirt ripped to reveal his Dark Mark, which had been crudely disfigured to near unrecognition. She knew what it was, though. 

He had his wand arm raised, firing off green jets of light one after the other with a level of relaxation only obtained from plenty of practice. Seeing it reminded her of a boy who was once unable to fire the killing curse at the top of the Astronomy Tower a year before. That boy was gone now. 

She ran through the courtyard, jumping and dodging stray spells as she went. She couldn’t tell who was firing. Ahead of her, she could see Harry and Voldemort dueling, their spells crashing in magnificent sparks between them. Around them people began to circle, erecting shields and shooting off defensive spells all the while avoiding the most important fight of the day. 

Then Tom Riddle was dead. 

Hermione knew they had very little time. After months of research between her, Professor Snape, and Draco Malfoy, the Order had developed a spell to trap the Death Eaters through their Dark Marks. When Voldemort died, Snape would invoke the spell. 

But Severus was dead. 

“Draco!” Hermione screamed through the excitement of the Dark Lord’s defeat and the remnants of the battle.

He made eye contact then nodded, raising his wand and slashing it downwards in a slicing motion. At once every Death Eater fell to the ground, members of the Light dodging wayward spells that had lost their target. 

The courtyard was in chaos around her, shouts of excitement, screams of terror, wails of grief, but Hermione remained frozen where she stood. Draco pushed his way through the crowd to reach her. He pulled her into a bone-crushing hug, then began to kiss her everywhere he could: her forehead, her cheeks, her eyelids, her lips. 

The Order would later blame it on Voldemort. A “contingency plan”, they would call it, Riddle’s way of ensuring none of his secrets could be revealed by Death Eaters once he was gone. That Draco Malfoy was fine because he defected, that his Dark Mark was mangled by Bellatrix’s cursed blade so badly that it was no longer connected to its creator. He would tell her they got lucky, that there wouldn’t be a disaster of acquittals like the First War had. 

But she knew. 

She knew, as bodies of the Dark Lord’s followers littered the courtyard, their throats slashed, a pool of blood forming around each of them, that this was not true. 

She knew as she looked wide-eyed into the face of the boy that could not kill Albus Dumbledore, the boy who had left his family to fight for the Light. 

She saw the man before her, a glint in his eyes, a hint of a smirk on his face, and she knew. 

Hermione laid her head gently on his chest, her heart pounding, her limbs shaking, and she knew.

**Author's Note:**

> separating my one-shot collection work into separate works bc it confused my dumb brain  
> join me on tumblr! librained.tumblr.com


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